Because there has never been a large-scale urban street fight involving hundreds of thousands of people in this world. No one realizes how high the casualty rate would be in street fighting?
Therefore, Zhou Wen proposed to the principal that the main force in the battle to defend Nanjing must be the most elite Central Army.
Because during this period, most of the grassroots officers of the Central Army were officer cadets who graduated from the Huangpu Military Academy (now the Central Army Military Academy), and they had extremely high patriotic enthusiasm and feelings of protecting their homeland and country. They are brave and enthusiastic, very loyal to the country and the principal, and are not afraid of death.
The army composed of these passionate young people is not afraid of the powerful Japanese army. In the historical Battle of Songhu, the Huangpu Military Academy students among the elite main force of the Central Army often took the lead in charging forward without flinching, and almost died in the end.
If they are given the important task of guarding Nanjing, they will never let the Chinese people down.
Zhou Wen suggested that in the Battle of Shanghai, China would consider retreating if it invested up to 30 divisions.
The troops supported from all over the country can be pre-deployed on the two defense lines between Shanghai and Nanjing (which are still only drawings) to prepare for defense.
The guard force in Nanjing city should be composed of two or three German weapon divisions as the main force, supplemented by some other troops who are familiar with Nanjing city, such as the Military Police Corps, the Tax Police Corps and the Central Military Academy Teaching Corps, with a total strength of about 8 -100,000 people, with the goal of holding on for three months, launched street battles with the Japanese army, using every street and building in Nanjing to kill and injure the Japanese army in large numbers.
There was no need for other troops to fight head-on with the Japanese troops around Nanjing. They resisted and intercepted at all levels, and then quickly moved across the river, striving to deploy defenses on the other side of the Yangtze River to defend Nanjing's supply lines and the retreat route of the garrison.
If the purpose of the campaign can be achieved, it will not only inflict heavy damage on the Japanese army, but also gain more than 8 months of preparation time for the war of resistance in Anhui, Henan and other provinces in the rear.
You must know that in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War in history, due to the defeat of the Battle of Songhu and the failure of Nanjing in a short period of time, the subsequent organization and deployment of the entire Chinese army suffered varying degrees of chaos.
The Japanese army took advantage of the victory and pursued it. Nanjing fell on December 13, 1937. The Japanese army basically did not rest and recuperated. In early January 1938, it launched an attack in the direction of Xuzhou in order to open up the line of communication with the Japanese army in North China.
From this we can see how powerful the Japanese army was at that time. Not only does it far surpass the Chinese army in terms of equipment and military quality, but its ability to fight continuously is also jaw-dropping.
At this time, the Chinese army retreated to Wuhan. After experiencing continuous defeats and retreats, not only the elite troops were almost exhausted, but the remaining troops had no time to rest and replenish.
Fortunately, the Japanese army attacked Xuzhou first, and most of the Chinese troops participating in the Xuzhou Battle were troops from other provinces who arrived later. Although the organization has been hasty, at least they are still fully organized and still retain a certain degree of combat effectiveness.
Although the Battle of Xuzhou ultimately ended in China's defeat, it also created brilliant achievements during this period such as the Taierzhuang victory.
If the Japanese army had not attacked Xuzhou at that time, but directly attacked Wuhan, given the chaos of the Chinese army at that time, it is difficult to say that Wuhan would have fallen in a short time. In that case, the situation of the Anti-Japanese War would have been very dangerous.
Because at that time, Wuhan had China's only remaining and most complete arsenal, the famous Hanyang Arsenal, and there were also a large number of supporting factories and steel plants.
If the equipment and workers in these factories had not had time to retreat and Wuhan fell, then the Chinese army would not be able to produce even basic rifles in the later period of the War of Resistance. How could it fight against Japan?
Therefore, Zhou Wen's plan is to enable Nanjing to hold on for more than 3 months, so that the Chinese troops in Xuzhou and Wuhan can get more preparation time.
In particular, the troops in Wuhan are basically troops that have retreated from Shanghai and Nanjing. After several months of continuous fighting, the losses of soldiers and equipment must be huge, and there must be buffer time for rest and replenishment.
Moreover, who knows whether history will change because of Zhou Wen's plan. If the Japs attack Wuhan directly after taking Nanjing, Wuhan will have at least more than three months to evacuate and prepare.
Zhou Wen almost foamed at the corner of his mouth before finishing his entire concept of fighting on the Eastern Front.
Seeing the principal silently looking at the map, he picked up the white porcelain teapot on the coffee table and looked at the tea cup in the principal's hand. He didn't see any intact ones. He didn't care about it. He just drank a few sips from the spout of the teapot. Big mouth.
The principal was lost in thought, but he was amazed at the boldness of the boy in front of him.
Faced with this somewhat complicated but not difficult to understand plan, he knew that there was no need to rush to make a decision yet. He just considered and deduced its feasibility in his mind and put down the idea.
Of course, this kind of strategy, which already involves the direction of national strategy, cannot be decided after Zhou Wen's explanation. Zhou Wen also knows this truth.
Even if the principal approves the plan in his heart, it will still have to be carefully deduced by the senior advisers of the Military Commission and come up with a specific implementation plan, and the opinions of other senior officials will also be sought before the layout can be started.
The principal no longer struggled with this issue at this time, and just frowned and asked: "Even if your campaign ideas are finally realized, it will only slow down the Japanese army's offensive, but this alone is not enough to allow us to finally What other suggestions do you have for defeating Japan?"
"Principal, these humble ideas are just to slow down the Japanese offensive, buy time for our rear organization and preparation, and also buy time for our layer-by-layer resistance in Xuzhou, Wuhan, and even Changsha."
"Moreover, as the Japanese forces continue to attack, their front lines are getting longer and longer. The large number of casualties and the pressure of logistical supplies will gradually weaken the momentum of the Japanese offensive. Of course, if the Japanese army can be completely stopped in Wuhan and Anhui, of course It’s best, if it doesn’t work, just continue to stretch the Japanese army’s front line, and we can basically stabilize our defense line in Hunan, thus entering a stalemate with the Japanese army.”
The principal nodded frequently after hearing this. Of course he knew that half of Hunan province is mountainous, and the other half has landforms with crisscrossing water networks.
If the Japanese army really attacks along the east-west line and goes through several major battles along the way, even if it can win, its attack momentum will basically be exhausted when it reaches Hunan. However, our country can take advantage of Hunan's geographical advantages of mountains and water to The Japanese army blocked it.
Moreover, the strategic concept of relying on Hunan is an important node in exchanging space for time proposed by many people of insight.
